Buy, Buy Britannia: Opportunities Galore in the United Kingdom

by Doug Barry
U.S. Commercial Service

The United Kingdom, which encompasses Great Britain (England, Scotland, and Wales) and Northern Ireland, is the United States’ fourth-largest export market by value (after Canada, Mexico, and Japan). Last year, the United States exported to the United Kingdom goods worth more than $41 billion, a 25-percent increase over 1996.

Instead of a few big exporters responsible for these sales, more than 34,000 U.S. firms—primarily small and medium-sized—shipped products there last year. Only Canada made more purchases from U.S. companies. Some of the reasons why the United Kingdom is such an attractive market for U.S. businesses include a common language, similar business practices, and comparable consumer tastes.

Selecting Partners
According to the U.S. Commercial Service, the global business solutions unit of the U.S. Commerce Department, the health care market in the United Kingdom is one of the top prospects for U.S. companies. One of the U.S. companies exporting to the United Kingdom is Earthlite, Inc., of San Diego, California. Earthlite manufactures high-quality massage and therapy products.

Earthlite entered the U.K. market with the help of the Commercial Service. Working with Commercial Service professionals in San Diego and at the U.S. embassy in London, Earthlite was introduced to several prospective distributors through International Partner Search. This is a Commercial Service program that analyzes market research, coordinates contact information, and finds distributors or partners for American businesspeople.

Earthlite Vice President Bryan Burlison credits the Commercial Service with helping to get the company's international business up and running. "These resources have helped us overcome some of the hurdles of doing business overseas,"says Burlison. As a result of Burlison’s experience in the United Kingdom, the company has used Commercial Service assistance in other parts of Europe.

Another service that matches U.S. companies with foreign buyers is Gold Key, which sets up face-to-face appointments for visiting U.S. business people with pre-screened prospective customers. Now available in the United Kingdom and elsewhere is a video version of the Gold Key, whereby U.S. companies in 105 U.S. locations can hold discussions with up to five carefully selected foreign buyers. Deals are sometimes negotiated "off-line"after the videoconferences, but more often the video sessions pave the way for face-to-face meetings in which deals are finalized.

Diverse Prospects
There are many other sales opportunities in the United Kingdom. Janet Callahan, a Native American jewelry maker, has found a market there. Great demand exists for food products, tourism and travel services, professional services, apparel, medical equipment, and much more.

Direct marketers will also find the United Kingdom attractive, mainly because of inexpensive transatlantic telecommunications and bulk mail, as well as a good distribution system and wide use of credit cards. Opportunities are also opening up for on-line retailing which, while not as popular as in the United States, is catching on quickly.

Although we share the same language and similar interests as the British, the American businessperson must consider cultural differences. For example, if you write favorite instead of favourite in your sales brochure, a buyer in London may think it is a misspelling. And that is not the first impression you want to make. But even if people in the United Kingdom call car trunks boots and hoods bonnets, Americans with strong products are mastering these differences and finding many promising opportunities in this market.

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